Friday, April 24, 2009

Changes To Come, Unless They Don't, But They Might

The Trail Blazers have played 84 games in the last six months, and despite that, they’re still making lineup changes. Rotations are tweaked and adjusted as the coaches find matchups they like and scenarios they think they can take advantage of, which explains why two relatively new pairings might take the floor tonight at the Toyota Center.

At the guard position, Nate McMillan is considering using Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez together in the backcourt with a bit more regularity. He’s used Roy and Fernandez together on occasion, but it sounds like that paring might see more time throughout the rest of the series.

“The combination of Brandon and Rudy, we’ve played that combination some,” said McMillan. “So those two guys being in there at the same time is the switch that we went to last game in the second half. We may look at that tonight.

“It just depends on how the game is going and the matchups. If we need some defense on their guards or I want to go with a matchup, try and get Rudy on Lowry or their point guards on our bigs. It just depends on the game.”

On the other end of the spectrum, expect to see Joel Przybilla and Greg Oden back on the court at the same time, maybe. On this topic, McMillan was a bit more secretive.

“We could,” said McMillan with a smile when asked if Przybilla and Oden would sahre the court in Game Three. “All 12 guys are available. To say that we’re going to just go with that matchup – yeah, we can look at that -- but during the course of the game, due to foul trouble or matchups, we can go to any of our guys. And all of our guys have to be ready.

“We can use (Przybilla and Oden together). It’s there. If I see an opportunity or we can use that to our advantage, we’ll go with it.”